THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

Poetry is like a song, like a psalm, like a prayer.  Poetry is different things to many people, and April being Poetry Month, The Latina Book Club  is celebrating by featuring Latino poets all month long. Today we share poems from some of the Leading Latino Poets of our time—all award winning poets, but better yet, they speak to our inner soul.  Happy Reading! GABRIELA MISTRAL First Latin American writer to ever win Nobel Prize for Literature. This poet and educator wrote about love and desolation and tenderness lost. PABLO NERUDA Also a Nobel Prize for Literature winner, he was best known for his romantic poetry. JULIA DE BURGOS Leading Puerto Rican poet, she often wrote of her homeland and how much she missed the land, the people, the river. OCTAVIO PAZ Another Nobel Prize winner, his poems were heavy into surrealism and we loved it. READ LATINO! READ LATINO POETRY!

   Poetry is the language of love, of revenge, of despair, of hope, of the people.   Here is a Top 14 List of Latino poets we should all be reading more of.  Among them we have the FIRST Spanish American Poet to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, an inaugural poet and two Poet Laureates.  I've tried to find websites for all the poets and, where there isn't any, I've posted a link where you could get more information on them.   Happy reading! --mcf TOP LATINO POETS Gabriela Mistral 1.     Gabriela Mistral (First Spanish American to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature) "Song of Death," http://www.poemhunter.com/gabriela-mistral 2.     Pablo Neruda, "Cantos Ceremoniales," http://www.fundacionneruda.org/en 3.     Julia de Burgos, "Rio Grande de Loiza," http://www.juliadeburgos.org 4.     Richard Blanco (Fifth Inaugural Poet of the U.S.), "For All Of Us, One Day...

When I am singing to you, on earth all evil ends: as smooth as your forehead are the gulch and the bramble. ---“Serenity” a poem by Gabriela Mistral WHEN I AM SINGING TO YOU —whose title comes from a poem by the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral—is a coming of age story about a poor Latina heroine. Carmen, is way too young at 13 to face all life throws at her – poverty, slave labor, abandonment, homelessness – but with courage, strength of character and loyalty, she navigates the tragedies of her life and comes out a winner. Carmen is a great character, and the main reason why this book won the 2012 Best Young Adult E-Book Award from the International Latino Book Awards, and was named one of the "16 Essential Latino Children's Books” by ¿Qué Más?, the blog for MamásLatinas, the leading bilingual online site for Hispanic moms. This book is well-written, heart-warming and quick to engage the Adult reader. NOTE: This novel is labeled ...